He pulled open the file drawer and did a quick scan of the files. He read labels like Expense Reports, Aerospace Companies, NASA… etc. He saw nothing alarming until his fingers walked across a file labeled Personal. He pulled out the file and opened it. Inside were some letters from Chris’s kids, the pink slip for his car, a mortgage quote. He was about to close up the folder before his eyes widened. He found an old tattered paper labeled Gambling Log. Peter remembered Gavin informing him that Chris had a serious gambling problem. Peter studied the paper. On top was a bank account number. Handwritten entries listed Chris’s winnings and losses over the last couple of years. He was shocked to see entries in the tens of thousands of dollars range. Where the hell does this guy get that kind of money? He pulled out his smart phone and took a picture of the paper.
Peter looked up to see the computer had located the password. He tilted his head in puzzlement when he saw it was Anne, his mother’s name. Thinking the coincidence was strange, he leaned over and pulled out the thumb-drive before rebooting the computer. He resumed examining the paper.
There appeared to be a small list of casinos. All but the bottom two had been scribbled out. Next to each loss was a handwritten comment in pencil saying open, paid, or settled. The word open had obviously been erased and replaced with paid or settled with dates added. Some of the larger losses had been settled rather than paid, many within the last few days. One $15,000 debt was today’s date. With the amounts being so large, Peter was sure Chris was using a credit line at the hotel casinos. He wondered what “settled” meant? Did he do something to pay off those debts? SID would need to do a little research.
The computer had booted and was requesting the password. He shuddered as he typed in Anne, wondering if the name was in any way associated with his mother. Bingo, the password worked. He went back to searching through the personal file while the computer finished booting. Nothing more caught his attention in the folder.
He put the paperwork back and put the file in the exact slot as he found it, then closed the drawer and locked it. He began to do a broad search on the computer, looking for anything suspicious.
Peter’s whole body jolted to attention when a faint sound echoed down the hallway. He turned his head slightly to position his ear toward the cracked doorway. A terrifying revelation hit him that the soft sound was footsteps, which were increasing in intensity. He quickly put the computer in hibernation mode before looking for a place to hide. His only choice was under the large wooden desk. He quickly grabbed his notepad, phone and pick set case before moving out the chair and quietly squeezing down into the dark, cramped space. Steps were fast approaching as he leaned over and pulled the chair slowly in as far as it would go.
His heart stopped when the steps entered the office. Shit. He hoped it was the cleaning lady, possibly coming to retrieve the vacuum. It soon became obvious that the approaching sounds were not from a maid’s soft shoes, but something hard-soled with a heel, possibly cowboy boots, which were Chris’s favorite. The footfalls stopped for a moment in the middle of the room. Peter’s brain went into overdrive trying to come up with a story why he was there. How the hell could he explain hiding under a desk? He couldn’t. Chris would instantly assume he was still with SID and his cover would be blown.
His body went rigid when Chris called out. “Hello?”
The boot sounds resumed and the resonance increased, making it clear the man was walking toward the desk. Peter’s face tightened as he looked down to see a shadow appear through the tiny slit between the floor and the bottom of the front desk panel hiding him. The noise stopped at its closest. Chris’s legs were inches from him on the other side of the thin wooden panel. He didn’t budge. Didn’t even breathe.
“There you are, baby.” Chills ran down Peter’s body as the Rolex wristband slid on the wooden desk just above his head. “I would hate to lose you after what I had to do to get you.”
The jewelry rattled a little before he heard a click; he assumed Chris had put on the watch. Peter let out a deep breath when the man turned and walked back toward the door. His relief was shortlived when Chris’s boots stopped. They seemed to spin on the wooden floor before their thuds indicated the man was returning to his desk. Damn it. Why is he coming back? Does he suspect someone’s here? Was something out of place on the desk? Peter once again held his breath as the footsteps swelled in volume. This time they came around the desk. His pulse shot up when the chair started to move out. He was screwed.
A few intense seconds passed as his heart beat in his throat. Peter could see Chris’s legs from under the desk, but for some reason they didn’t move. After what seemed like an eternity, the extreme silence was broken. “Damn it, she didn’t clean my chair.”
Peter moved only his eyeballs to peer down at the chair’s fabric seat just inches away, and saw a large stain.
“I need to find her and make sure she cleans this.”
Peter relaxed slightly as the chair started coming back into the small space. He squeezed in his legs as tight as he could, allowing the chair to enter without touching him.
He dropped his head and exhaled when the boots moved off toward the door. Chris exited, calling out for the cleaning lady as he marched down the hallway. Peter quickly pushed out the chair. He took the computer out of hibernation mode before shutting it down completely, disappointed he was unable to search the hard drive. Before tip-toeing toward the doorway, he did a swift onceover of the area to double-check everything was as he’d found it.
Chris was deep in the stairwell, still calling out. Peter peeked outside—all clear. He peeled off his gloves as he hustled in the opposite direction from the stairwell. He had to get back to his office before Chris came by there looking for the cleaning lady. His boss would certainly know he was still in the building with the evidence left on his desk and question where he was.
Peter came to the last long stretch toward his office and stopped behind a large pillar. He had to pass through a wide, open area filled with a bunch of employee cubicles. Two main aisles ran parallel through the area. He saw Chris’s head bobbing down one of the aisles as he walked toward the hallway that led to Peter’s office. Once he exited the aisle, it would be too late for Peter to beat him.
Being over six foot, Peter towered over the cubicle walls. To ensure Chris didn’t see him, he bent down and awkwardly raced down the long carpeted stretch, feeling like a duck waddling along. Fortunately, the aisle he was in was closer to his office. When he reached the end of his passageway, he peeked across the room through a crack between two cubicle walls to see Chris was about ten feet from reaching his exit. Peter quickly slipped off his shoes to silence his steps before bolting across the wooden hallway floor, sprinting straight into his office. He raced through his room and practically flew into his chair, tossing his shoes under his desk.
Chris called out. “Hello, anyone here?”
A set of stereo ear plugs lay on his desk. Peter shoved them into his ears before burying his head in the Iris manual. He wiped the sweat off his forehead before taking a huge gulp of oxygen to slow down his speeding heart. With the earphones not connected to anything, he could hear Chris advancing to his office. Soon the man was at his doorway. “Hey, Peter, how come you’re not answering me?”
Peter kept studying, pretending not to hear the man. Chris started to walk in and this time yelled. “Hey, Peter!”
Peter looked up and plastered a surprised look on his face. He took the ear plugs out and innocently answered, “Oh! Hi, Chris.”
“You didn’t hear me calling?”
Peter was struggling not to pant as he spoke. “Sorry, I was listening to music. What are you doing here?”
Chris approached the desk. “I had to pick up something in my office. Have you seen the cleaning lady?”
Peter leaned back in his chair. “I saw her earlier when I went to get some coffee by your office.”
“Yeah, looks like she was working in it. I’ve been trying to find her. I wan
t her to clean off a coffee stain on my chair.” Chris put his hands on his waist and lifted an eyebrow. “So what are you working on?”
Peter started to point toward the manual when a frightening sight made his stomach plunge. The plug-in for his ear plugs was lying in clear view on the desk, an obvious sign he wasn’t listening to music. To prevent Chris from seeing the evidence, he quickly got up. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m studying the Iris manual, and I have a question on the number of thrusters and their locations.” He started walking over toward the detailed schematic of the capsule hanging on his wall.
“So I guess you decided to make yourself comfortable?”
Peter turned to see Chris looking at his socked feet as he followed. He casually grinned. “Yeah, since it was going to be a late night.”
When Peter reached the drawing he couldn’t think of a question. He already knew the machine pretty well. So he played dumb and asked one he knew the answer for. “I wonder if we have redundancy in the system for orbital maneuvering and altitude control.”
Chris grew impatient, shifting from foot to foot. “Absolutely, that’s why we have two thrusters at every location. Each one of those suckers puts out 90 pounds of force, which alone is sufficient to do the job. So we have duel-redundancy in all axes.” Chris took a step back. “You know we need to get you in the simulator. Let’s try to schedule that in the next day or two. I’ve got to get going. If you see the cleaning lady, please tell her about the stain.”
Though Peter did not give a rat’s ass about the stain, he pretended to care as he patted the man’s back when he turned to leave. “Will do, Boss.”
15
MOVING FORWARD
Once Chris left the building, Peter erased any evidence anyone had been in the area, putting the vacuum back and turning off the lights on Mahogany Row. Hustling back to his office, he took a quick glance at his watch—10:50 P.M. Anya was now weighing heavily on his mind, wondering what she wanted to talk about. He was relieved it was still before eleven and he hadn’t missed her deadline. He closed his door before trekking across his office and plopping down into his seat.
He took a deep breath to gather himself before speed dialing her number on his cell phone. He wiggled his foot as he waited for her soothing voice.
“Zdrah-stvooy.”
“Hey baby, it’s me.”
Her voice got higher. “Hi, Peter. I’m so glad you were able to call.”
“I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I got your text. So are you getting ready for work?”
“Actually, I am in my car in the parking lot. I was waiting for your call. So where are you?”
“I’m still at work.”
“Oh my, it’s late there. What in the world is keeping you at the office?”
Peter eyed the plug-in of his headphones still lying on his desk as he smiled. “I guess you could say I am just doing some catch-up work.”
“Have you had dinner?”
As if on cue, Peter’s stomach growled, reminding him he needed to give it a little attention. “Not yet; I guess it’ll be a late one. So what did you want to talk about?”
Her voice became intense. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about us.”
Peter’s knee started bouncing through the ominous pause. Is she going to break up with me?
Anya cleared her throat. “I’ve decided I need to be open with you. You need to know why I left. I don’t want to hide anything from you.”
Peter still wasn’t sure where she was going. “That’s the only kind of relationship I want, one where we are completely honest and open with each other.”
“Exactly. Having said that, you should know I was brought up to always be strong and never show any kind of weakness.”
Peter had always been impressed with her strength. “We all have our issues. That’s part of being in love, accepting both the good and the bad of the other. Believe me, I know I’m not perfect, even though I may think I am.”
Anya giggled. “You’re perfect in my eyes. I know I could be happy with you the rest of my life.”
Peter relaxed. “Ditto.”
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I want you to know why I came back to Russia.”
“Well, I was surprised you left. I thought we were set to live our lives together.”
“I thought so, too, but I was confused and needed some time to think. I was afraid I was too in love with you.”
Peter was now confused. “How could you be too in love?”
“Something happened when you were rescuing the cosmonauts that I didn’t tell you about.”
Peter straightened up. “What’s that?”
“I had an anxiety attack in the control room. I had to be carried out on a stretcher.”
Peter’s grip tightened around his phone. “Why didn’t you tell me that? That’s terrible. Where were you taken?”
She gave a reluctant sigh as she spoke guardedly. “I was sent to medical. When I came to, I wanted to get back to the control room immediately, but the doctor wouldn’t let me. In fact they had to sedate me to prevent me from leaving.”
Peter started to grind his teeth.
“Eventually the doctor explained the attack was brought on because of my deep love for you and my fear that something terrible will happen when you are on an assignment, especially when you’re in space. He said if I’m put into a similar situation, it will probably happen again, though there is some medicine I can take.”
Peter shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been there for you.”
“Me too, because then I wouldn’t have had the attack in the first place.”
Peter smiled at the conundrum. “Good point.”
Her voice started to crack. “I was so disappointed in myself. I thought I was stronger than that. But as the doctor said, when the body takes over, there’s nothing you can do.”
“I’m glad you’re telling me this.”
Sincerity lingered in her voice. “Peter, I don’t want to change you. I know you like working for SID, and I know you love flying in space. That’s why I left. I didn’t want you to have to make a choice. Besides, I doubted I could handle being in a relationship where these attacks could occur.”
Peter’s knee resumed bouncing. Damn, she’s thinking of leaving. “I’m positive we can work things out. In fact my new assignment is here in Houston, and there will be no flying in space.”
“That’s nice, but who knows where the next assignment will take you and what dangers you’ll be put in?”
Peter leaned back in his chair. “True.”
“But I’ve come to realize, I can’t live without you. I’m too in love. Mom used to be an emotional wreck during Dad’s missions, but she never let on. She wanted him to be happy and flying in space was one of his true loves. Space was the mistress Mom had to compete with. She learned to deal with the anxiety. I used to think she was crazy, but now I understand. When you are deeply in love, you can handle any problem. I would rather be a part of your life and deal with these episodes than be without you.”
It was tough for Peter to grasp her emotional pain, but he wanted to. He was glad she was willing to work through the challenging issue. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I just want us to be together forever.”
“It means a lot to hear you say that, Peter.” Her voice perked up. “Let’s try this again. Do you still want to move in together?”
Peter slammed his fist on his desk. “Hell yes!”
A relieved snigger came through the phone. “Okay, I’m going back to my boss to ask for that transfer again. He’s probably going to think I’m some unstable, love-struck girl.”
“Hey, if he doesn’t grant it, then quit. I’ll take care of you.”
Anya answered in a soft tone. “I know you would.”
“BOSS, YOU LOOK BEAT.”
Peter tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes as he straightened up in his chair, grabbing his cup of coffee off his desk. Sitting a
cross from him were Jesse and Blake. “I was in the office until midnight last night getting up to speed on Iris. In fact, all of us are going to have to start putting in late hours. That’s why I called you two here this morning.” He took a big swig of his coffee, hoping the caffeine would jolt him awake. “EarthOrbit is about to make an aggressive move in the space world. One we hope will catapult us to the front of the pack and get NASA’s attention.”
The eyes of both men widened, awaiting Peter’s next words.
“We have decided to take a bold step and launch our first manned rocket on September 21st.” Peter purposely took a dramatic pause as he set his coffee down and slowly leaned back in his chair, observing the men’s reaction. He was pleased to see an eager look on both faces. “I have selected you two to carry out this mission.”
Blake practically fell out of his chair as he powered his fist high into the air. “Yeah, baby!”
Peter grinned at the young man.
Blake tried to regain his composure. “Sorry about that, Boss, but that is some pretty awesome news.”
“I’m glad you’re excited.” Peter looked at Jesse, who surprisingly had a more serious look on his face. “What do you think, Jesse?”
Jesse directed a cold stare out the window.
The weighty pause caused Blake, with his silly-ass grin, to glance over at his partner, as if wondering why he wasn’t as ecstatic as he was. He looked like a child waiting for his mother to give him the okay to open his present.
Jesse turned his head back around with a calculated look. “Are you sure we’re ready?”
Peter understood the veteran’s concern. Jesse’s number-one priority was the safety of the crew. “Walter and Chris feel we are, and from what I have seen, I think we are as well. Like any mission, there will be risks. But at this point we’re all positive we can pull this off.” Peter leaned back in his chair as he watched Jesse ponder the idea. Peter knew his next statement would really shock the guys. “We’re also considering doing a spacewalk.”
Space Hoax (Hoax Trilogy Book 2) Page 15